Coventry Music Scene from Hobo

Hi and Welcome - this is the home page of the Coventry Music scene archives from Hobo -the links to the various aspects of the scene can be found above in the top menu. This therefore is the directory.

The links above will lead you to Hobo Magazine sites on the different aspects of Coventry music -

I've developed a range of blogspots around different aspects of the Coventry Music scene as shown below, from the original all-one original Hobo Vox site some will remember. They are still works in progress of course...Here are the direct links with descriptions (or click in the above menu).

The Hobo A to Z of Coventry Bands
Coventry Folk Club Scene of the 1970's (including a history of the folk club scene in Coventry from the early 60's by Pete Willow and posts on some of the current and excellent acoustic players in Coventry now like Kristy Gallacher, Emma McGann, Justine Watson, Rob Halligan, Barricades Rise etc. It includes posts on Rod Felton, Rob Armstrong, Dando Shaft, Dave Bennett, Fureys, Sean Cannon, Pauline Black (in folk club days!), Joe O'Donnell's Shkayla, Gothic Horizon, and more.
Coventry Arts Umbrella Club - Opened by The Goons in 1955. This Umbrella club illustrated archive features Phillip Larkin, who had a rare article in the Umbrella Magazine (on the site) and in the early 70's some members of Two Tone and their early bands played there and much more.
Coventry Gigs and Venues - This site archives the many Coventry Telegraph articles by Pete Clemons on Coventry venues, festivals and bands etc. A fascinating read.
Hobo Magazine and Hobo Workshop (Coventry's Music and Arts Magazine) This site is the archives of Hobo magazine and Workshop (Holyhead Youth Centre) in the early / mid 70's and related music features and other Coventry and Birmingham Magazines that reflected the Cov Scene.
Coventry Discos / DJ's and Venues / Recording Studios / Shops A site for material relating to these aspects of the Cov Scene. Work in progress.
Lanchester Polytechnic Gigs 1970's / 80's (Now Coventry University) with youtube of bands that played there,
Hobo - Coventry Music Archive (The original Vox site). This is the original Hobo site on Vox which was closed in 2009 and which some of you will remember when it was lively and active 2006 - 9. I've archived it on Typepad while I create smaller sites around the different aspects of the Cov scene. It contains over 300 posts and needed some revision and sorted but still being used by many.
Hobo on Facebook New posts are often linked on this Facebook Page.

OTHER COVENTRY MUSIC LINKS

Rex Brough - Coventry Music Scene - Another early A to Z of Coventry Bands from Rex Brough, stronger on late 70's and 80's but covers all decades from the 60's to 80's. Again not update recently but still a great and useful site.

About Hobo Magazine / Workshop and Sites

Hobo was a Coventry Music Magazine and Workshop in the mid 1970's, initiated by Trev Teasdel and . We were involved in a lot of activities and developments to get things going for the music scene at a time when gigs and support was difficult to come by for all the budding musicians and bands in the city. The Hobo Workshop was started in 1974 at the Holyhead Youth Centre and later the Golden Cross. It gave first gigs to a lot of bands and musicians that later thrived or even achieved record contracts.
John Bargent (Bo)

2006 / 7 we created a website on Vox to house the Hobo archives and share them with the world. The site reconnected a lot of Coventry musicians, now spread around the world and inspired new musicians in Coventry who were amazed by all the musical history of the city. The was involved in a number of new initiatives with the Broadgate Gnome (another earlier Coventry underground magazine) who created the Gnome Label to promote Coventry music and the Herbert Art Gallery / Museum's Coventry Music Exhibition 2009 initiated by Pete

Chambers and much more. The site grew to contain much more than just the Hobo archives through the many interactions of those who found the site.

More recently Vox closed it's sites but allowed transference of all the material to another of their blog systems - Typepad - where all the material is now housed - all be it without some of the Vox features and without all of the interactions, as people fled to Facebook to connect.

The site is now an archive of itself as well!

However the site contained material from different aspects of Coventry's musical history, from rock to folk to

disco and more. many of the posts needed updating or rewriting too. So it was decided to keep the original site as a reference and develop a series of smaller, more focused sites on Blogspot. Still works in progress, you'll find links to them in the top menu. There's links to the Coventry Folk Scene, Discos and DJ's, Venues and Gigs, Coventry Arts Umbrella Club, A to Z of Coventry bands and more. A lot of work still to do but we hope you enjoy the material.

Trev Teasdel

NEW BOOK - DIRTY STOP OUTS - Coventry music and entertainment venues in 70's
by Dr. Ruth Cherrington.

This new book has drawn on material on these Hobo sites and features Hobo magazine itself as well as numerous memories and contributions from peoplewho attended venues in Coventry or organised them or played in them. A brilliant book, well worth a read.